The Adelaide Film Festival (ADLFF) is an international film festival held over two weeks in mid October, in Adelaide, South Australia. The ADLFF has a strong focus on local South Australian and Australian produced content, with the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund (AFFIF) established to fund investment in Australian films, of $1,000,000 per festival.

The AFF featured in Variety Magazine's Top 50 unmissable film festivals[1] around the world.[2] They qualified their search by saying:

“

Of the planet’s 1,000-plus film fests, only a select few pack industry impact. A few dozen more, by virtue of vision, originality, striking setting, audience zest and/or their ability to mine a unique niche, also rank as must-attends.

The inaugural Adelaide Film Festival was held between 28 February to 3 March 2003. After 150 screenings, the festival was met with both critical acclaim and popular support, with a third of the ninety ticketed screenings sold out.

An earlier independently-financed Adelaide International Film Festival had been held from 1959 to 1980.[3]

The Adelaide Film Festival has been held in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016 (a one-off "Rogue" event), and 2017. An additional full festival and funding round has been announced for 2018.

Katrina Sedgwick was the Festival's founding director in 2002.[4][5] She had previously co-founded the 1995 Sydney Fringe Festival, was the Special Events Producer (1998, 2000) for the Adelaide Festival of Arts, and the Artistic Director for the 2002 Adelaide Fringe Festival.[6] In 2007, Sedgwick introduced an international jury prize to the festival.[5] At the time of her stepping down from the role of Festival director in 2013, Sedgwick said that the festival was the first in Australia to introduce an international competition, and a production fund, and that ticket sales had grown by 20 per cent each year.[7]

Chair, Sandra Sdraulig AM,[9] a lawyer with more than 20 years experience as a film and TV executive, in both the commercial and cultural sectors of the Australian film, TV and digital media industry.[10][11]

Andrew Mackie,[10] a film distributor, former managing director of Dendy Films, co-founder of the film distribution company Transmission Films, and an executive producer.

Jamie Restas,[10] lawyer with over twenty years experience in the area of mergers, acquisitions, capital raising and corporate governance.

Maria Ravese,[10][12] an accountant focused on the provision of taxation and HR related services associated with employment, and with extensive experience dealing with cross border regulatory compliance obligations in the entertainment and media industry.

Martha Coleman,[12] a producer of film and television, a former Head of Development at Screen Australia, and now a producer with Goalpost Pictures Australia.

The Don Dunstan Award was established in honour of Don Dunstan, Premier of South Australia and is presented by the Board of the Adelaide Film Festival in recognition of the outstanding contribution by an individual to the Australian film industry who has "enriched Australian screen culture through their work".

ADL Film Fest was the first Australian film festival to create a juried prize for best feature film. Our all-star competition values idiosyncratic voices, bold storytelling, creative risk-taking and overall fabulous films.

In 2017 ADL Film Fest introduced the AFTRS ADL Film Fest International VR Award, the first competition of its kind in Australia, adding to the festival’s reputation as a leader in screen culture, having been the first Australian festival to introduce an international competition, and the first to invest directly in film production with the ADL Film Fest Fund.

The Jim Bettison and Helen James Award has been established to recognise that many Australians have contributed exemplary and inspiring lifelong work of high achievement and benefit, and that the completion, extension, recording and/or dissemination of such work would have benefits for both the individual concerned and for the wider Australian community.

On an annual basis, it is hoped that the Award, which is provided in recognition of achievement, will provide the beneficiary with further time for activity that may continue to inspire, enrich and be of benefit to the community. Each year, the Award will give $50,000 to a recipient who has contributed significantly in his or her area of expertise – which might include, among others, the arts and humanities, social justice, the environment or the sciences.

2017: Robert McFarlane, leading Australian social documentary and arts photographer

2016: In 2016 two bold and innovative individuals were honoured.

Meryl Tankard, one of Australia’s pre-eminent dancers, choreographers and directors

In partnership with Screen Australia, KOJO and the National Film and Sound Archive, this initiative is the first of its kind. It supports innovative, observational and/or social justice docs, with up $738,000 in funding.

Together the partners allow an established Indigenous filmmaker to create a feature-length documentary.

In 2017, ADL Film Fest World Premiered the resulting film - Larissa Behrendt’s AFTER THE APOLOGY

The film focuses on a group of grandmothers taking on the system over the increase in Indigenous child removal in the years following Kevin Rudd’s apology to the “Stolen Generations”.

The Award celebrates and acknowledges outstanding work produced by AWG writers and provides an important development opportunity. The winner gets to meet industry directors and producers, with a view to moving the project onto the screen. This is an opportunity to uncover first‐class unproduced screenplays by Australian writers, and provide industry opportunities for them.[20]

2011 The Unlikeliest Hero, by Barbara Connell, is being filmed by New Zealand director James Cunningham in an official Australia/New Zealand co-production. The completion of the film is timed to coincide with the 100-year commemorations of ANZAC Day.[22][23][24]

Continuing its reputation as Australia’s most dynamic screen event,[citation needed] usually held every two years, the Adelaide Film Festival went "rouge" in October 2016 "to offer up audiences a fresh mini-festival in between the biennial full festivals in 2015 and 2017".[citation needed]

Premiering works commissioned by the Adelaide Film Festival Fund, October began with the Australian Premiere season of Collisions (5-30 Oct), included a special free event at the Adelaide Festival of Ideas (AFOI) (23 Oct), and culminated in a 4-day streamlined mini-festival (27-30 Oct) featuring World Premiere screenings of two ADL Film Fest Fund screen events – Australia’s first Muslim rom-com Ali's Wedding, based on the life of actor, writer and comedian Osamah Sami, and a special ‘Work In Progress’ screening of the highly anticipated David Straton's Stories of Australian Cinema.

The 7th Adelaide Film Festival was held from 15–25 October 2015. Amanda Duthie was again the Festival Director. On the opening night of the festival, Director and screenwriter Andrew Bovell received the 2015 Don Dunstan Award for his contribution to the Australian film industry.

More than 180 feature films were screened at the festival, 40 of which were Australian films, 24 South Australian films and total of 51 countries were represented at the Festival.

As part of the 2015 Adelaide Film Festival, a public art installation was presented, incorporating a Laneway Cinema in Cinema Place, showing moving image artworks, and a 'Reactive Wall', where six artists created 2D visual artworks live in response to content within the festival.